Best Recovery Tips After a Long Run, Marathon or Half Marathon Race
After completing a long run, marathon, or half marathon, your body needs to recover. Proper recovery is crucial to replenish energy stores, repair muscle fibers, and prevent injury. Failing to recover correctly can lead to prolonged fatigue, soreness, and even injury, which can delay your training progress and hold you back from your next training block!
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the best recovery strategies for runners, detailing the specifics surrounding foam rolling, stretching, sleep, nutrition, protein ingestion, carbohydrate refueling, and hydration. Let’s dive into how you can optimize your recovery and feel your best after the race.
Foam Rolling for Recovery After a Run
Foam rolling is a form of self massage that has been shown to help decrease delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) when performed after exercise, according to this study.
Foam rolling only needs to be performed for 1-2 minutes on each body part that you foam roll. We advise foam rolling the muscles that get used most when running, which are your calves, quads, hip flexors (TFL muscle), and glutes.
Does foam rolling work?
Foam rolling your TFL muscle
Sleeping for 8+ Hours After a Run
Sleep is one of the most underrated components of recovery. The general population requires 7-9 hours of sleep per night, according to the National Sleep Foundation (NSF).
Runners and those participating in sporting activities need at least 8 hours of sleep per night to avoid injury. (You can read more on how sleep affects athletic performance and injury risk in a blog we wrote on the topic.) This becomes especially important after a race or event. This study suggests that those who slept for less than 8 hours were 1.7x more likely to suffer a sports related injury. This study was performed on adolescent athletes, but it can be reasonably assumed that this would apply to the adult athlete.
Sleep is crucial because it allows the body to repair damaged muscle fibers by releasing hormones (like insulin-like growth factor 1 and growth hormone) that facilitate muscle healing and growth. This happens during the slow wave / deep sleep (Stage 3), as cited in this study.
According to this article, sleep also is known to facilitate your immune system by promoting pro-inflammatory cytokines which target infections and inflammation throughout the body.
Carbohydrate & Protein Refueling for Recovery After a Run
Refueling with proper nutrition is crucial for proper recovery after a run. Replacing carbohydrate energy stores (which get converted and stored as glycogen for future use in the liver and muscle) is crucial to optimal recovery after a run. The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) states that you should be refeeding at 1.2 grams of carbohydrate per hour until carbohydrate stores burned have been repleted. The recommendation is to do this for the first 4 hours after your run so you don’t consume too many carbs all at once and cause gastrointestinal upset. They also state that carbohydrates with a higher glycemic index (>70) are preferred after training. This is because carbs with a higher glycemic index are most quickly absorbed and stored.
This study suggests that it’s more valuable to your recovery if you consume a combination of glucose and fructose based carbs as opposed to glucose alone. The ideal ratio is 2:1 (glucose:fructose). This study was conducted on cyclists, but the concept translates to any endurance athletic endeavor.
Foods with glucose: rice, bread, pasta, etc. (stored mostly in muscle)
Foods with fructose: honey, jam, etc. (stored mostly in liver)
The ISSN also states that a combination of carbohydrates and protein to refuel is optimal. The typical recommendation is a 3:1 to 4:1 ratio (CHO:PRO) for optimal reabsorption and muscle protein synthesis (MPS) effects. This would mean combining carbohydrates (0.8 g/kg/h) with protein (0.2–0.4 g/kg/h) until stores are repleted. The 3 main essential amino acids (EAA’s) that contribute to MPS are leucine, isoleucine, and valine. They can be consumed with a whey protein or branch chain amino acid (BCAA) supplement, or they can be consumed naturally by eating meat, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds, or legumes.
Hydration and Electrolytes for Recovery After a Run
Hydration and electrolyte replenishment will depend on your sweat rate during your run. Sweat rates are different for every runner, and will depend on weather conditions, with heat and humidity resulting in greater sweat rates.
We recommend that you weigh yourself nude before and after your run. That will help you to identify how much fluid you’ve lost. You’ll want to replace every pound you lost with 16-24 fluid ounces of water. Don’t drink it all at once to avoid GI issues. You can drink 16-24 fluid ounces per hour until you replenish all the fluid you lost and your body weight is back to pre-race weight.
Water is absorbed best when consumed with sodium (Na+). Sodium is the most important electrolyte for runners to replenish during and after a run/race. Some runners lose 200mg of Na+ per hour of running, while others can lose up to 1,500mg of sodium per hour. We typically recommend 700-1000mg of sodium for every hour of running (during your run). It’s hard to predict how much sodium you’ll need after your event, but you’ll be eating and drinking afterwards, so we’re more interested in electrolyte repletion during your run.
Some runners are considered “salty sweaters.” If you experience the following, you may be in this category:
Salt marks on your skin or running kit/gear
Salty tasting sweat that burns if it gets into your eyes
Frequent muscle cramping during or after running (especially in heat)
Craving salty foods/snacks after running
If you’re a salty sweater, you may want to consider more than the generally recommended 700-1000mg per hour of running.
Conclusion
If you found this helpful to your race day recovery, share it with a runner friend! If you’re interested in working with us on optimizing your running performance, click the button below to speak with a physical therapist.
Disclaimer: This is not intended to be formal medical advice. Your individual needs should be met by the appropriate health care practitioners. Please consult with a trusted provider.
Dr. Paul Nasri, PT, DPT, OCS, COMT
Doctor of Physical Therapy
Orthopedic Clinical Specialist
Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist
